Turkey's Parliament has elected former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, 62, as its speaker.

Legislators in the 600-seat assembly elected 62-year-old Yıldırım with 335 votes in a third round of balloting on Thursday. Erdoğan's AKP is just short of a majority in the parliament, but counts on backing from its ally, the hard-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whose votes helped agree Yıldırım as speaker.

Turkey this week formally switched to an executive system of government that abolished the office of prime minister and concentrates sweeping powers in the hands of the president.